Workmen’s Compensation Ordinance, 1949 makes provisions for compensation or benefits due to injuries or diseases or death arising in the course of employment. This instrument is also one of the outdated labour laws, which are currently under reform. The updating of this piece of legislation has a vital role to play in the workplace accident mitigation (Mwombeki, 2005). The updated legislation is expected to make provision for a compensation system that encourage prevention of accidents as opposed to the current situation where compensation is cheaper than prevention, and as a result most employers do not bother to prevent accidents (Mwombeki, 2005). The social security system in Tanzania is also fragmented in that there are several institutions that provide social security in the country. As a result of that, compensation system is also not functioning well. The repeal of Workmen’s Compensation Ordinance is intended to address a number of shortfalls in the current legislation (Mwombeki, 2005).
Collection of data on injuries and diseases is inadequate in most countries. In some of the countries where there is an adequate data collection system, most of the data is not fully comparable from one country to the next because of variations in definitions, recording and notification systems. The motivation to report injuries and diseases varies according to the types of incentives provided in the compensation and social security systems (African Newsletter on Occupational Health and Safety, Vol, 20, No 3, 2010).
Severe injuries and diseases, such as fatalities, poisoning, acute inhalation of respiratory toxic substances and dermatitis among others are frequently recorded by workers’ compensation systems or social security system. Countries where workers’ compensation is the source of injury and disease data normally encounter several limitations, such as lack of standardization in the eligibility requirements for reporting, lack of standard case definitions, disincentives to workers and employers to file claims, inadequate numbers of physicians to recognize chronic occupational diseases with long latency periods and the usual gap (several years) between initial filling and resolution of a claim(African Newsletter on Occupational Health and Safety, Vol, 20, No 3, 2010).
2.3.13 Statutory Requirement to Report Injury and Disease in Tanzania
In Tanzania, reporting of injuries and diseases is required under some pieces of legislation administered by different government enforcing authorities. The legislation currently requiring reporting of injuries and diseases is the Workmen’s Compensation Ordinance of 1949 Cap 263 and its amendments and the Notification of Accidents and Occupational Disease Ordinance of 1953 Cap 330. In other words, all occupational injuries must be reported under the Accidents and Occupational Diseases Notification Ordinance, and employees must be insured against occupational injuries under the Workmen’s Compensation Ordinance (African Newsletter on Occupational Health and Safety, Vol, 20, No 3, 2010).
According to the Occupational Health and Safety Act No 5 of 2003 and its regulations, administered by the Chief Inspector of Occupational Safety and Health Authority, reporting of injuries and diseases is also required. Although all of the legislation has been announced in the official gazette, with the exception of the Workers’ Compensation Act, only the Workmen’s’ Compensation Ordinance is functioning to some degree. To a large extent, workers make an important contribution here; they are motivated to report injuries and diseases so that they can be compensated (African Newsletter on Occupational Health and Safety, Vol, 20, No 3,).
2.4 Empirical Literature Review
The empirical literature review on occupational health and safety in building construction sites based on global level, continent level as well as national level. Here the study sighted how different people from those basement mentioned above say about occupational health and safety in construction industry.
2.4.1 Empirical Literature Review World Wide
Dowling, (2011) wrote several articles concerning Global Workplace Health and Safety Compliance. He went further and tried to see if there are occupational health and safety on various working place. He wrote; General health/safety standards imposed across worldwide operations, such as a global code of conduct safety provision, a set of company “cardinal safety rules,” or a manifesto on health/safety principles like Sony’s “Global Policy on Occupational Safety and Health. He narrated well the failure to meet occupational health and safety with regards to the labour law worldwide.
Honda's approach to occupational health and safety "No safety, no production": as a company that holds respect for the individual as one of the basic tenets of its philosophy, Honda considers the mental and physical health of associates to be one of its most important responsibilities, alongside workplace and traffic safety. Besides making these views explicit in our basic policy on occupational health and safety, Honda engages in initiatives designed to ensure that its workplaces are among the safest and most comfortable in the industry. http://world.honda.com/CSR/ employee/safety/. A recently released study by the Global Construction Perspective and Oxford Economics (Global Construction 2025) forecasts an increase of 70% in the volume of outputs from the industry by 2025. In developing countries the report shows that regardless increase of the increase in revenue in construction industry, they have paid a great attention in occupation health and safety. Developing counties such as Scandinavian countries apart from being a prominent source of pollution, construction Work is characterized by the entire spectrum of health and safety, hazards, namely physical, mechanical, ergonomic, biological, and chemical hazards. But in reality they try their best level to make sure health and safety are obtained. Another global survey by KPMG International in Europe (2012), which involved face–to-face interviews with 165 executives from construction industries, similarly showed an increase in great care of occupational health and safety which they think is the myth in increase in revenue of up to 5% in 2012/13, as reported by more than half of the respondents. Major drivers are the increased demand for better health and safety, good health and safety policy as well as its implementation and stakeholders’ awareness in occupational health and safety.
Neale and Waters (2012) tried to explain factors to improve health and safety regarding United Kingdom 40 years of transition in occupation health and safety. The construction company obviously had taken OSH very seriously nowadays compared to 40 years ago by providing good barriers between the site and the public, safety fencing on all floors, and fans to catch falling debris. The construction company had adopted the principle of ‘zero incidents’ and generally this is what they achieved. The fact is 40 years ago they faced so many problems concerning health and safety but they undergo transition period by inducing deliberate policy plan and implement it.